# Meal Preferences — a reference doc for grocery automation

A template for the doc I actually use to keep grocery ordering and meal
planning from eating my week. Written so an assistant (or a partner, or
a grocery app) can size orders and suggest meals without me repeating
the constraints every time. Copy this, fill in your own life.

## Household constraints
- Very small fridge, no real storage space: buy about a week of fresh
  or cold food at a time. Small/regular package sizes only, never bulk.
  Flag anything that won't fit or won't get used before it expires.
- No beef or pork (chicken, turkey, and seafood are fine). Watch for
  hidden pork: gelatin (gummies, marshmallows, some yogurts), pork
  casings on sausages, lard.
- Some items need to be gluten-free. Ask before substituting those.

## Weekly dinner rotation (repeats unless changed)
- Mon: chicken meatball pasta (chicken meatballs, sauce, pasta, side salad)
- Tue: salmon, rice, snap peas or cucumbers
- Wed: sheet-pan chicken thighs, broccoli, sweet potatoes (double batch
  for Thursday's leftovers)
- Thu: chicken rice bowls or tacos from Wednesday's leftovers, with
  peppers and corn
- Fri: pizza night with cut veggies and fruit
- Sat: tofu or dumpling stir-fry with leftover veggies
- Sun: leftovers or eat out

## Breakfast rotation (no fixed day)
Waffles and berries · eggs and toast · Greek yogurt with berries and
granola · oatmeal with banana and nut butter · chicken breakfast
sausage with fruit.

## Kids' school lunch formula
1 protein (leftover chicken, meatballs, cheese sticks, chicken snack
sticks, hummus) + 1 fruit + 1 veggie + 1 snack + milk or water.

## Store logic (what actually worked)
- One store for weekly fresh groceries (produce, dairy, protein,
  frozen), ordered on a repeat/subscribe schedule where possible.
- One store for monthly non-perishables (toothpaste, shampoo, pantry
  items), grouped onto a single delivery date so it's one thing to
  think about, not five.
- A big-box/bulk retailer sounds efficient on paper, but if it splits
  perishables and non-perishables into separate carts with separate
  checkouts, it stops being one order and becomes two logins and two
  waits. That tradeoff wasn't worth it for us. Worth checking before
  you assume "buy in bulk" actually saves you time.

## How this gets used
This doc sizes the order (so nothing over- or under-shoots the actual
week), flags anything that violates a constraint (pork, non-GF, too
much for the fridge), and drives a daily "here's tonight's dinner"
reminder so nobody's guessing at 5pm.